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Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

Just piggybacking off of Pecks' JFK assisantion thread. (I think an alien topic would be good too)

Do you believe in ghosts?

I'm interested in hearing some stories from people about situations they've been in. I've never personally had any experiences, although I really want to. I've almost started doubting myself already if it did though, thinking that maybe my mind will invent something that isn't there, because I would like for it to happen.

My gf and I have been on a Ghost Adventures/Dead Files/Ghost Hunters/My Ghost Story Caught on Camera kick here for the past month or so. It's fully understood that those shows could easily be faked. I'm not sure, to be honest, although I tend to lean it's real. (Maybe not all the show, but the basis) Everytime I say I believe it, I feel dumber. Maybe that should be a hint.

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

The AA at our company says she has seen ghosts, angels, and all types of craziness. She is a fairly level headed person to in everything else and her stories are pretty bizarre, she has no reason to lie. She's the only person that's ever made me pause for even a second and consider that maybe it could be a possibility.

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

The AA at our company says she has seen ghosts, angels, and all types of craziness. She is a fairly level headed person to in everything else and her stories are pretty bizarre, she has no reason to lie. She's the only person that's ever made me pause for even a second and consider that maybe it could be a possibility.

I obviously don't know the woman you are talking about and I wouldn't accuse her of lying. Generally speaking, I don't think that people who believe in ghosts are "lying" about their experiences. I just think that people who inherently want to believe in ghosts are inclined to "see what they want to see" so to speak, i.e. they chalk up bizarre occurrences to ghosts and allow their minds to play tricks on them. I on the other hand don't believe in ghosts and have never had an experience with a ghost. Is that just a coincidence, or is that because my not believing means that I subconsciously don't allow my mind to attribute an occurrence to being the work of a ghost?

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

I'm uncertain. I've had one thing happen to me that I suspect was paranormal, but I'm going to keep the specifics of that one to myself for personal reasons.

Otherwise, I haven't had any encounters (never seen a ghost or whatnot) personally, but based on everything I've seen/read/listened to over the years, both by strangers (in books, interviews) and people I know and trust, it would not shock me if there's truth to ghosts.

The problem is for any one piece of apparently legitimate paranormal happenings, there's hundreds if not thousands of instances of nonsense out there, so it's easy to see why many people think it's all crap. Almost all of it probably is.

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

I obviously don't know the woman you are talking about and I wouldn't accuse her of lying. Generally speaking, I don't think that people who believe in ghosts are "lying" about their experiences. I just think that people who inherently want to believe in ghosts are inclined to "see what they want to see" so to speak, i.e. they chalk up bizarre occurrences to ghosts and allow their minds to play tricks on them. I on the other hand don't believe in ghosts and have never had an experience with a ghost. Is that just a coincidence, or is that because my not believing means that I subconsciously don't allow my mind to attribute an occurrence to being the work of a ghost?

I am skeptical too. As a kid growing up I used to have sleep paralysis and night terrors a few times a year. Those were always pretty terrifying and I know some people attribute them to the paranormal, I just never really bought in.

Anyway, as a skeptic it's a whole lot different listening to someone you believe has no reason to lie tell you a story than seeing a guy in an Affliction running through an abandoned house yelling at supposed ghost.s

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

I've never seen anything or had anything that creeped me out. I've seen things I can't explain for sure. Here's one recent one.

This past December 8th, it would have been my mother's 70th Birthday. She passed away in 2007 pretty much immediately after turning 65 and getting her social security paperwork filed after a lifetime of working her fingers to the bone. I'll save the rest of that story for when someone starts a "God's cruel jokes" thread. Anyhow, she was born on December 8th 1942. I was very close with my mother, we would talk on the phone for hours at a time. This particular day was a Saturday. I hadn't worked on Saturday in more than 2 years and it's not common for anyone from my part of the company to work on weekends. I had just remembered earlier that morning about it being my mom's birthday and thought about her for a bit, then got to work. At lunch, I went down to the break room to grab a soda. I put two one dollar bills in the machine and got my soda. It spit some change back out. I look at the change and there's a 1942 nickel in there. You gotta be kidding me? A 70 year old coin just happens to make it to my hand on my mother's 70th birthday from the work machine on a day I'm not even supposed to be working? Those are absolutely insane odds for something like that to happen. No way do I believe it was coincidence or even an accident. I took that nickel and taped it to the cabinet above my desk.

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Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

I won't go into my 70 year old sister's story....it's very believable. I've had two instances of "odd' happenings.
1) went to a friends home in southern In. for turkey hunting. They had rebuilt the old 3-story home to near original with stone fireplace in teh kitchen for cooking and hewn logs throughout. Theyclaimed to have a female ghost on the 3rd floor (where I was sleeping) but let me know she was more curious than anything. She never tried to scare or harm anyone...yada yada. When I went up to bed, I plugged in an electric alarm clock and set it on a table across the room from my bed. It never went off. The next morning, when I did wake up an hour late, I found the clock unplugged and the cord wrapped around and through the legs of the chair next to the table I had set the clock.
2) We have a 21 year old home we had built so we have no reason to believe it's haunted but we keep hearing odd noises upstairs (why is it always upstairs when you are downstairs?) One night we heard what sounded like footsteps upstairs. It was loud and distinctive enough that our black lab , Becca, got up and walked over to the bottom of the stairs where she stood staring up the staircase. With a low growl her hackles stood straight up and remained like that for 3-4 minutes. Eventually we heard what sounded like footsteps moving away and Becca came back and lay down near us. (She knows she's not allowed upstairs so she made no attempt to go up there). That was the one and only time that has happend. UNfortunately, Becca has passed on and we no longer have her company.

I have previously related my Three encounters with my gaurdian angel so no need to go into that here.

If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around..

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Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

The one thing that I always go back to is that they say like 60% of our universe is made up of dark matter, which we cannot see. Being another whole world of "stuff" in and around us that we can't see, is kinda frightening and amazing all at the same time.

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

I won't go into my 70 year old sister's story....it's very believable. I've had two instances of "odd' happenings.
1) went to a friends home in southern In. for turkey hunting. They had rebuilt the old 3-story home to near original with stone fireplace in teh kitchen for cooking and hewn logs throughout. Theyclaimed to have a female ghost on the 3rd floor (where I was sleeping) but let me know she was more curious than anything. She never tried to scare or harm anyone...yada yada. When I went up to bed, I plugged in an electric alarm clock and set it on a table across the room from my bed. It never went off. The next morning, when I did wake up an hour late, I found the clock unplugged and the cord wrapped around and through the legs of the chair next to the table I had set the clock.
2) We have a 21 year old home we had built so we have no reason to believe it's haunted but we keep hearing odd noises upstairs (why is it always upstairs when you are downstairs?) One night we heard what sounded like footsteps upstairs. It was loud and distinctive enough that our black lab , Becca, got up and walked over to the bottom of the stairs where she stood staring up the staircase. With a low growl her hackles stood straight up and remained like that for 3-4 minutes. Eventually we heard what sounded like footsteps moving away and Becca came back and lay down near us. (She knows she's not allowed upstairs so she made no attempt to go up there). That was the one and only time that has happend. UNfortunately, Becca has passed on and we no longer have her company.

I have previously related my Three encounters with my gaurdian angel so no need to go into that here.

One of the big things you read is how dogs have a "sense" for paranormal stuff.

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Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

I have to see something for myself to really buy it.

When we travel on family vacations, my kids always like to do those popular ghost tours. They are always making fantastic claims, and sometimes if the narrator is really really good, a receptive crowd coupled with the power of suggestion makes people see what they want to see. We did one at the Alamo and the very personable guide had people believing that they were seeing a figure in a camera that made images based on temperature gradients. I saw only fuzzy blobs.

I think that people want to humanize all sorts of shapes that are not significant, like seeing J esus in your toasted bread or the virgin Mary in your rusty water heater.

The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!)

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

Just piggybacking off of Pecks' JFK assisantion thread. (I think an alien topic would be good too)

Do you believe in ghosts?

I'm interested in hearing some stories from people about situations they've been in. I've never personally had any experiences, although I really want to. I've almost started doubting myself already if it did though, thinking that maybe my mind will invent something that isn't there, because I would like for it to happen.

My gf and I have been on a Ghost Adventures/Dead Files/Ghost Hunters/My Ghost Story Caught on Camera kick here for the past month or so. It's fully understood that those shows could easily be faked. I'm not sure, to be honest, although I tend to lean it's real. (Maybe not all the show, but the basis) Everytime I say I believe it, I feel dumber. Maybe that should be a hint.

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

We did one at the Alamo and the very personable guide had people believing that they were seeing a figure in a camera that made images based on temperature gradients. I saw only fuzzy blobs.

Kind of like watching the sun shine through your blinds and seeing particles floating in the air and yet in the shadow you see nothing.

You know how hippos are made out to be sweet and silly, like big cows, but are actually extremely dangerous and can kill you with stunning brutality? The Pacers are the NBA's hippos....Matt Moore CBS Sports....

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

I am a skeptic about most things, but a crusade of mine is making people understand what it means to be a skeptic.

It doesn't mean you are a determined naysayer who poo-poos everything. It means that you want to see evidence for claims not in accord with physical laws and/or common sense. Every half-decent judge, policeman, businessman, and of course scientist is a skeptic to some large degree.

My skepticism extends to psychic phenomena. I am waiting to see that newspaper headline "Local psychic takes home lottery jackpot"

The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!)

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Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

People in my family claim to have experiences with the paranormal but I am highly suspicious that they saw what they wanted to see. Not that that is a terrible thing, in fact it gave them great comfort during a time of grief.

Personally I have not but I am very close to my parents so I hope when they're gone I get some kind of sign that they're alright, wherever they are.

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

I am a skeptic about most things, but a crusade of mine is making people understand what it means to be a skeptic.

It doesn't mean you are a determined naysayer who poo-poos everything. It means that you want to see evidence for claims not in accord with physical laws and/or common sense. Every half-decent judge, policeman, businessman, and of course scientist is a skeptic to some large degree.

My skepticism extends to psychic phenomena. I am waiting to see that newspaper headline "Local psychic takes home lottery jackpot"

Yep. A skeptic definitely doesn't just rain on everyone's parade. They just want hard evidence.

Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

Funny weird thing happend just today now that you mention it....seriously.
After I got home this afternoon I noticed a light shining upstairs. The only thing upstairs are the kids bedrooms but they have been back to college for a couple of weeks now. My thought was perhaps Mrs G had gone up and gotten sheets off their beds to wash. I meant to go up and turn off the light but got distracted and forgot about it. Shortly later I left to go to a Lions Club meeting just as Mrs G was getting home. I got back home about 8:30 this evening and noticed tha the light was no longer shining through the upstairs railing and so I mentioned it to her by saying "I see you went up and turned the light off" to which she asked....
"what light"? She had no idea what I was talking about. I KNOW I saw a light shining up there earlier because it shone through the handrail and cast a shadow of the rail and spindles on the wall. It was that shadow that had initially made me look up the stairs to see that there was a light on. This spooked Mrs G enough that she allowed me to get out my .45 to go upstairs (she never allows me to pull that gun out at home). My search was fruitless. Everything upstairs appeared normal (cluttered as only a couple of college kids could make it) and no.....no lights had burned out. The Mrs is allowing me to take the .45 to the bedroom tonight. She is more bemused than spooked but still...........

If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around..